Wednesday 13th May saw the fourth Cambridge LabVIEW User Group meeting take place in the meeting rooms of the Polatis Building on the Cambridge Science Park.  22 people were present to hear all about National Instruments' test executive software,TestStand - how it fits with LabVIEW and the benefits / shortcomings of using the program in a variety of different applications.  There was a high level of "user participation" in this meeting and attendees engaged in lively debate and discussion both during and after the formal presentations, expressing a variety of opinions from positively enthusiastic to openly sceptical.

Martin Saxon (Product Technology Partners) gave the first of five presentations, in which the role of test executives in functional test software architecture was addressed. Peter Horn (National Instruments) then introduced the TestStand features and capabilities, with a demonstration of TestStand running in simulation.

There then followed three presentations illustrating user experiences of TestStand:  Mike Richer (Park Air Systems) presented his experiences in developing test systems using TestStand with LabVIEW over the past two years – with a comprehensive review of the plusses, minuses and frustrations. Dale Atkin (Cambridge Semiconductor) told us that the perceived complexity of TestStand and slow speed of execution, had driven him to consider and implement alternatives, especially where testing was time critical. Finally, Tom Phillips (Selex Galileo) presented a TestStand-based architecture in the wider context of integrated test system design and maintenance with the primary message that education, training and knowledge were key requisites in the effective deployment of complex test systems.

The group discussion after the presentation concentrated mainly on specific features of TestStand particularly the separability of code and data, with further private discussions carrying on long after the meeting was formally closed.

Copies of the presentations are available to download from either the Web Links section on the Main Menu or the Downloads item in the top menu.  Please remember that you need to be registered and logged-in to access this information.